Outspoken Ed Koch’s best quotes

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who passed away Friday, was known for his catch phrase question, “How’m I doin’?”, but he had many other memorable lines. POLITICO has compiled some of the more infamous quotes from one of the Big Apple’s most outspoken leaders.

“Have you ever lived in the suburbs? It’s sterile. It’s nothing. It’s wasting your life, and people do not wish to waste their lives once they’ve seen New York! … This rural American thing — I’m telling you, it’s a joke,” on Albany, N.Y, a quote in a 1982 edition of Playboy. The interview was used against him throughout his gubernatorial Democratic primary against Mario Cuomo, who beat him.